The Wakkerstroom Music Festival is a Non-Profit Organisation and a Public Benefit Organisation. The aim of the WMF is to promote an awareness of Performing and visual Arts in rural communities and raise funds for a bi-annual Bursary Competition.
*****Festival Dates: 20-22 March 2015 *****
Please take note, the Ticket BOOKINGS are open! Please navigate to the Bookings Page.
Wakkerstroom Music Festival Celebrates Fifth Year
The fifth Wakkerstroom Music Festival takes places 20-22 March 2015. In celebration of this important milestone, the organisers have decided to combine the second Wakkerstroom Music Festival Bursary Competition (WMFBC) with the 2015 Festival. The Wakkerstroom Music Festival is a non-profit organisation with the main aim to raise funds that will enable promising music students to further their studies. Sponsors who already gave their support to make this wonderful weekend, filled with classical music at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains, is SAMRO, Hunt Essential, BASA and Nolands, Nedbank Arts and Culture, and the WMF’s media partner is the e-tv Sunrise Breakfast Show.
The 2015 WMFBK has already received numerous entries and the closing date for submissions to the competition is 6 February 2015. Six prizes, the first prize being R60, 000, will be awarded to deserving young musicians. The semi-final of the WMFBK will take place of 19 March and the final on 20 March, followed by the prize-giving ceremony. After the award ceremony, the WMF will open with a performance by the popular Odeion Quartet with Samson Diamond from Bloemfontein and a classical jazz concert led by Barbora Tellinger.
Saturday, 21st March promises to offer festival goers a wide selection of classical music concerts catering to everyone’s tastes. From a harp trio led by Ingrid Janse van Rensburg; a concert with lullabies from all over the world performed by soprano Gretel Coetzee, all the way from Windhoek; a Schubert lieder concert performed by the well-known Johannesburg tenor Sandile Mabaso; and a performance of Grieg and Schubert instrumental compositions by the Sempre Opera Instrumental Ensemble to a sunset concert by the Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool’s Dixie band. Adding to the festive atmosphere, Hoërskool Empangeni’s marching band will take their performance to the streets of Wakkerstroom. The highlight of the day will be the astounding Gala concert with all the artists participating.
The WMF concludes on Sunday, 22 March with an organ concert by Ockie Vermeulen in Wakkerstroom’s historical NG Church, a flute and piano concert by flutists Pierre Tolsma and Meryl Monard and pianist Annelien Ball, and a solo piano performance by the internationally renowned Laura Pauna.
